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octa-

  1. a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek and Latin, where it meant “eight” (octagon; octastyle), on this model, used in the formation of compound words, and in chemical terms specialized to mean “having eight atoms” (octavalent).
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Also oct-, octo-.

Origin of octa-

< Greek okta-, combining form of oktṓ eight
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for octa-

octa-

combining form
  1. a variant of octo-
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for octa-

before vowels oct-, word-forming element meaning "eight," from Greek okta-, okt-, from PIE *okto(u) "eight" (see eight). The variant form octo- often appears in words taken from Latin, but the Greek form is said to be the more common in English.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper